Page 62 of Pretend Girlfriend

“Unless there’s some other reason you can’t come?” Danicka asked.

Does she know about Landon and me? There was no way. She was just rejecting my rejection. I had been convincing all night.

“Let me get some coffee in me and talk logistics with Landon,” I said. “I, um, need to find someone to watch my cat while I’m gone.”

“Landon told us you were a dog person,” Danicka said scornfully. “Don’t worry. I won’t hold it against you.”

Landon returned with a big plate of food. “There were only three pancakes left, so I grabbed them all and added a waffle for good measure. I hope you like syrup, because it’s absolutely drowning in the stuff.”

“I would definitely drop the L-bomb if this were a real relationship,” I whispered while digging in.

“Anything else I can do for my fake girlfriend?” he asked.

“Yes,” I replied with a full mouth. “Tell your mom I can’t go on the honeymoon. I’ll let you figure out the excuse.”

Everything was starting to fall back into place. I had coffee in my system and a plate full of breakfast carbohydrates. Once I packed, I could return to my apartment and spend the rest of the day by the pool. I wouldn’t have to fake this relationship anymore; I could just be myself.

“Actually,” Landon said slowly, “I think you should come to Jamaica.”

27

Landon

I didn’t like Joanna.

That fact was obvious from the moment we met at the restaurant before having dinner with my family. She was blunt and impulsive, two characteristics I hated in the women I dated. She’d invited herself to the wedding, for crying out loud. After the first hour with her, I was eager to finish this agreement and be rid of her.

But something changed at the wedding. I wasn’t sure when it happened: dancing together sober, dancing together drunk, waking up spooning her with my morning wood wedged against her ass…

I saw her in a completely new light. Quite literally: the morning sunlight was streaming through the window and playing in her blonde hair, making it glisten like gold. I didn’t understand it, but I couldn’t deny it. There was something about her that I was now drawn to, and I couldn’t shake the feeling.

So when she told me to think of an excuse for her to skip out on the honeymoon, I found myself replying, “Actually, I think you should come to Jamaica.”

Her jaw fell open and a chewed up bit of pancake fell back onto her plate. “What? No you don’t. That’s not what you’re supposed to say!”

She’s right. That’s not what I should be saying. Yet I bulled forward, ignoring the screaming voice in my head that said this was a bad idea.

“My mom loves you,” I explained. “It would piss her off if you bailed now. Then she would spend the entire honeymoon introducing me to all the single women at the resort.”

Joanna groaned. She was cute when she was frustrated.

I gave myself a mental shake. What’s gotten into me?

“Let me guess,” she muttered into her pancakes. “If I refuse to go, you’ll bail on your end of the deal.”

“Actually, no.”

She jerked in surprise. “Really?”

“You’ve gone above and beyond the original agreement. I couldn’t have asked for a better fake girlfriend. If you choose not to go to Jamaica, I’ll understand. And I’ll still tell Phil to hire you. But I hope you’ll go. What else are you going to do this week?”

“Grovel for my job, probably,” she replied. “It won’t work, but I have to try. I don’t like being in limbo. I have an apartment to pay for, and student loans, and way too many other bills. If I somehow don’t get the job at DefTec…”

“I’m going to make sure you get it,” I assured her.

“And what if you can’t?” she challenged. “What if they find someone better than me, someone so qualified that they have no choice but to ignore your recommendation? I’d be screwed!”

“No, you wouldn’t.”

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